Most people have some idea of what nutrition is. It is taking a proper diet, eating protein, fruits and vegetables and taking multi vitamins if you are really into it. Right? But can a bad diet lead to mental health issues?
Everybody is familiar with the feeling of food that makes them feel good mentally and physically or something that gives them food poisoning, we associate it with a “heart-breaking” experience.
But very few people understand the fact that nutrition and our mental health interact in a very intimate, maybe even causal way and that is something that occurs over long periods of time. Meaning, when you eat something today, it could impact your brain and body, including your emotions even 10 years from now.
When it comes to physical health, mountains of evidence will tell you that a healthy diet is important, and it surely is. But a growing body of research is showing that diet is important for mental health, too. Studies have found a link between what people eat and their risk of mental illness, even when it comes to the severity of their symptoms. According to Harvard Health Publishing, Western diet increases the risk of depression to 25-35% when compared to a “traditional diet.” Another study showed that the rate of mental health problems had doubled in the last 5 years linking it to poor nutrition. Increasingly, there’s an exponential increase in ADHD which is wrongly attributed to only the rising screen time in children and adults. This is true for Autism, Schizophrenia, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, and so on.
One argument is that there’s a rising awareness about mental health leading to an increase in diagnosis as people are more accepting of mental health care than ever before. However that is not the entire story.
Other studies have found something more specific. They’ve reported that, when it comes to mental health, it’s not just about having a generally “healthy” or “unhealthy” diet. Instead, specific nutrients are sometimes involved.
For example, in a 2017 paper, researchers used data from a long-term health study to look at older adults diagnosed with depression. They found that participants’ levels of vitamins B12 and B6 decreased in the year leading up to their diagnosis.
One study observed that individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly higher intake of total energy, carbohydrates, protein, sugar, total fat and saturated fats when compared to the control group which did not have Bipolar. Similar differences were seen in individuals with Schizophrenia.
Another study by Cambridge showed a small, yet detectable increase in saturated fat intake in depression cases.
One thing which is common amongst all these researches is that diet can impact your mental health and vice versa. These studies point towards one thing, and that is, good nutrition could be helpful for some clients in specific situations. But maintaining a good diet does not promise a cure for all mental problems. What it does tell us is that diet is an important part of mental health and reminds us that our brains are not something to be looked at separately from our bodies. Taking good care of our body will also help the brain and thus our mental health.
However, under no circumstance should you underestimate the utility of medical interventions including therapy. For example, depression can be a catastrophe. It carries with it a very high suicide rate and it also put people under immense trouble. On top of that, it is really hard on the person’s family. It is physiologically extraordinarily damaging. So if you are in a depressive state and it’s severe, you can go to a psychiatrist and try an antidepressant!
Shaunav Kaushik ( BBRFI Intern)
References
Selhub, E., MD. (2022, September 18). Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626
Firth, J., Stubbs, B., Teasdale, S. B., Ward, P. B., Veronese, N., Shivappa, N., Hebert, J. R., Berk, M., Yung, A. R., & Sarris, J. (2018). Diet as a hot topic in psychiatry: a population‐scale study of nutritional intake and inflammatory potential in severe mental illness. World Psychiatry, 17(3), 365–367. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20571
Gougeon, L., Payette, H., Morais, J. A., Gaudreau, P., Shatenstein, B., & Gray-Donald, K. (2017). A prospective evaluation of the depression–nutrient intake reverse causality hypothesis in a cohort of community-dwelling older Canadians. British Journal of Nutrition, 117(7), 1032–1041. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007114517000782